“Nocturnal Animals” at the Venice Film Festival

VENICE, ITALY – SEPTEMBER 02: Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts attend the premiere of ‘Bleeder’ during the 73rd Venice Film Festival at Sala Giardino on September 2, 2016 in Venice, Italy. (Photo by Jacopo Raule/FilmMagic)

I shot a video of this last night, and I’ll attach it soon. Liev Schreiber won the Persol Award for visionary talent, at the Sala Grande, the most glamorous of movie houses at the Venice Film Festival. After the presentation, they showed his latest film, “Bleeder,” which is the life story of Chuck Wepner, a boxer who became very famous for a very short time in the 1970s — and then became a sort of permanent footnote to history, by providing the inspiration for Sylvester Stallone’s “Rocky.”

The movie is a nice portrait of a man of out-sized flaws and special strengths — a stand-up guy who could take a punch, who seemed to have a loyal and affectionate nature, but at the same time had a weakness for cocaine and women (just about any woman), which cost him his marriage. You would not necessarily imagine Shreiber in such a role, but he does quite well, particularly in scaling back his own intelligence and giving us the thought processes of a fellow not that good at thinking. Schreiber captures, without the faintest whiff of condescension, a not-so bright fellow’s helpless delight in his own fame.

The movie is also very good at conveying and suggesting much through period details. For example, Wepner wears a coat that is the height of fashion in 1977. But three later, in 1980 — by which time styles had changed dramatically — he’s still wearing it. That tells you two things, that Chuck is stuck in the 1970s, and he’s not prospering.

Naomi Watts is also in the film, as a touch barmaid who starts to take an interest in Chuck.